I attended the Ontario GMA Canada seminar last Friday. I was excited to re-connect with an old acquaintance Chris Vacher of Worship Rises fame. Chris founded Worship Rises to encourage the Canadian church to write songs that speak to what God is doing in our churches and our lives. He sees as a worship leader, and I agree, that there really is no significant voice in Canada right now. I think that speaks to two things: 1. a lack of Biblical passion for what song writers and creatives should be doing to encourage the church, and 2. the ominous and probable possibility that we are not letting God do enough in our lives, hence no powerful songs to sing. There is actually one other thought, we need a mechanism, like an industry but not, that allows us to freely share good quality worship songs with each other. I don't have an answer for this today, but certainly Chris is trying to help with this.
One of the things that Chris does is set-up song writing clinics for worship leaders across Canada to get things moving. They already have an EP released with the fruit of that labour. I went through a crash course and co-wrote a song with an artist named Derrick Drover. He apparently sang the song in a showcase last Friday night. I have co-written songs before with my old band mate Fraser McCulloch of Heart Mind and Soul fame, but sitting in a room with someone and pounding out something from scratch is quite another thing. I am actually looking forward to finding a way to do this again soon, in the end it wasn't that scary, but I am sure that speaks in part to Derrick's patience!!
